Please Join Us as We Continue to Fight for
Annexation Law Reform!
May 17, 2012
FAIR ANNEXATION COALITION
UPDATE:
Wednesday was a very
interesting and productive
day for annexation reform in
the General Assembly.
The action started at noon,
when the Senate convened and
assigned two annexation
bills to their Rules and
Finance Committees.
The bills are: HB 5
(Committee Substitute)
"Local Deannexations" and HB
925 (Committee Substitute)
"Annexation Reform 2."
These bills were
heard in the Rules Committee
first and then the Finance
Committee. The bills
received favorable reports
out of both Committees and
are on the Senate Calendar
Thursday for a second
reading (roll call vote) for
each bill.
A brief discussion of each
bill:
HB 5: Basically stops the
requirement for appealing
the Judge's ruling in the
cities' case against the
state. It does this by
simply deannexing the nine
communities involved and not
allowing their annexations
to be re-initiated for 12
years. The cities affected
are: Kinston, Lexington,
Rocky Mount, Wilmington,
Asheville, Marvin,
Southport, Goldsboro, and
Fayetteville.
HB 925: This bill changes
the decision process for a
proposed annexation area
from a petition of property
owners to one of a
referendum of registered
voters ONLY in the proposed
annexation area. A simple
majority (of those voting)
against the proposed
annexation would mean the
municipality could not
initiate the annexation
process for the same area
for 36 months.
Kudos to all the red shirts
who made their presence
known in the Senate
Galleries, the hallways and
offices of the Legislative
Office Building and the
Legislative Building and in
the Committee Rooms. A
special thanks to Oak Level
citizens for their massive
support (once again!)
Senator Buck Newton was the
"point man" on this effort
today, and he did a
masterful job in both
Committees of explaining the
rational behind these bills.
Please stay tuned for
updates as they occur on
this rapidly moving
legislation. We really want
a GREAT turnout of red
shirts as this process comes
to what we expect to be a
successful completion. After
the third vote by the
Senate, these bills will
move to the House, and we
are hoping their votes can
be wrapped up by midweek
next week.
A sea of red to show our
thanks would be most
appropriate.
Sincerely,
Doug Aitken
FAC
_____________________________________________________
Culture of Corruption Continues in NC Over Forced Annexation
On Monday, March 26,
Judge Joseph ruled that
the petition process
contained in the new
annexation law passed
last summer is
unconstitutional. While
this affects us all
adversely, the battle is
far from over.
Article and video
http://www.wect.com/story/17260631/annexation-deemed-unconstitutional
Another article
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120327/ARTICLES/120329725/-1/business?p=3&tc=pg
Article in today's
Asheville Citizen-Times
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120328/NEWS/303280048/Annexation-ruling-raises-questions-about-Asheville-Biltmore-Lake
Some points of interest
for you. The judge in
this case is the
daughter-in-law of Tony
Rand, the former NC
state senator who was
long-time arch opponent
of annexation law reform
and crony of the NC
League of Municipalities
(NCLM). Corruption runs
in the family, as one
friend puts it.
The NCLM has been the shadow, pulling the strings, behind this entire movement to get the petition process overturned. Why? Money. The NCLM is a lobbying organization in Raleigh that is funded by city taxpayers. The larger the municipality, the more money they get from city governments for membership in the NCLM. It doesn't take rocket science to realize that the NCLM has a huge stake in unabated forced annexation.
The point about voluntary annexation (mentioned in the AC-T article) is a good one. If the involuntary (aka, forced) annexation petition process is unconstitutional, so must be the voluntary annexations that have occurred, since they can only happen when there is 100% approval via a petition process!
The cities that put forward this lawsuit have harmed every single taxpayer in the state of NC. The cities sued the State of North Carolina, the State Board of Elections and their county boards of elections, wasting state, city & county tax dollars. The State Attorney General is involved, as are attorneys for the cities & county boards of elections. Outside attorneys have been brought in. This lawsuit is frivolous and detrimental. The cities (via their councils, their lawyers, and their bureaucrats) and the NCLM had better wise up before they waste any more taxpayer money in this tight economy.
And the petition process is NOT a vote. The cities first attempted to overturn the petition process by writing to the US Department of Justice last summer saying the process violated the Voting Rights Act. The USDOJ rightly concluded that it was not so.
Misrepresentation, abuse of power, and waste is the bottom line here. Talk about greed! Where are the Occupiers when you need them? (joke)
Stay tuned for more developments.
____________________________________________________________________
Forced Annexation Battle Across North Carolina
From 1959 until the summer of 2011, North Carolina had arguably the longest-standing and most repressive policy of municipal annexation in the United States. In the last 10-15 years, the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) and their adherents in state and local governments billed North Carolina as having the most “progressive” annexation law and held it up as a model that other states should emulate. In fact, however, no other state tried to copy the law because of its severity and unpopularity among the majority of the population.
Last summer the North Carolina General Assembly passed a new annexation law that finally gave people in unincorporated areas under threat of forced annexation way to fight back. Now, if a municipality wants to initiate an annexation move, the city must have more disclosure over a longer period of time, and ultimately if 60% or more of the property owners indicate by petition that they do not want to be annexed, the process is stopped in its tracks for three years. The new annexation law is a compromise between the NCLM and the citizen groups who have stood against forced annexation because under the new legislation, the assumption is made that if a city begins annexation proceedings, it will automatically go forward unless enough property owners resist it. The means of using the protest petition process is not the same as conducting an election.
Now let’s talk about the North Carolina League of Municipalities’ role in all this. The NCLM has not been called the “shadow government” of NC for no reason. This organization, a lobbying group, is likely the most powerful lobby in the state, rivaled only by the North Carolina Association of Educators. The NCLM has benefited tremendously over the years from the practice of forced annexation. The organization receives money, in the form of dues, from every member town, village and city in NC, based upon population. The more municipalities annex and tax, the more money the NCLM receives. So the group has a significant interest in the continuation of unrestricted forced annexation.
After the passage of the new annexation law, the NCLM was desperate to find a way to overturn it. Under the direction of Executive Director Ellis Hankins and chief lobbyist Kelli Kakura, the NCLM persuaded the city governments of several NC cities to get their city attorneys to submit letters to the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), stating that the new law with its protest petition process actually represented a vote, and the new law should therefore receive approval from the USDOJ due to provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[i] The USDOJ responded with a letter stating they found no need for any preclearance before the petition process could occur. (See John Locke Foundation Daren Bakst’s letter to the DOJ, urging them to conclude that preclearance was not required.[ii]
Not to be deterred, the NCLM counseled the same NC cities[iii] and their attorneys to file a lawsuit claiming that the new annexation law was unconstitutional according to the NC Constitution. The lawsuit basically presents the same argument that was presented to the USDOJ – that the petition process is actually an election and somehow disenfranchises people who live in rental units (because some of them might be racial minorities) and that the people who live in the municipalities should also be allowed to weigh in on the determination of an annexation. This is ironic since for 50+ years the NCLM was insistent that those who live outside a municipality did not deserve a chance to weigh in on an annexation. Additionally, for property owners who actually wanted to be annexed, the NCLM crafted voluntary annexation law that required 100% of them to sign what was in essence a petition process in order to be annexed.
Now we citizens of North Carolina find ourselves in a situation where the NCLM and these cities, via their lawsuits, have drawn into the fight every taxpayer in the entire state of North Carolina. Not only have citizens in areas undergoing contested annexations been made to raise tens of thousands of dollars to hire an attorney to oppose the lawsuit, but the State and various counties must also become involved. The cities’ lawsuits also name as defendants the State of North Carolina, the State Board of Elections, and the several county boards of elections. The cities have also retained the services of an outside law firm. The State Attorney General must become entangled, as must the counties’ legal representation, as well as an attorney for the citizens whose property is threatened, added through a court approved motion to intervene.
|
Plaintiffs Cities of Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Kinston, Lexington, Rocky Mount and Wilmington Some citizens of these cities Represented by the city attorneys and the outside law firm of Parker-Poe |
Defendants State of North Carolina North Carolina State Board of Elections Boards of Elections of Cumberland, Wayne, Lenoir, Davidson, Nash and New Hanover Counties Property owners in the above counties Represented by North Carolina State Attorney General, the counties’ attorneys and outside attorney Jim Eldridge |
As anyone can see, a scenario exists now where all NC taxpayers are forced to fund one or both sides of the argument, which is a terrible waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars at a time when everyone is looking for ways to economize.
This situation has led Senator Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the NC Senate, to write a letter to Ellis Hankins of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, and sending copies to the Mayors of the plaintiff cities, stating that if the NCLM doesn’t pipe down, the NC General Assembly will take action against the cities to prevent further taxpayer-funded waste on frivolous and abusive legal maneuvers.[iv] Others across our state have called for a legislative fix that would deny any state funding to municipalities that want to continue this absurd contest.[v]
The lawsuit is scheduled to be heard the week of March 26 in Wake County Superior Court.
Let us hope that the NCLM and the cities will soon come to their senses and stop the insanity.
[iii] The five cities are Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Kinston, Lexington and Wilmington. Since the first lawsuit, the City of Rocky Mount has added a second lawsuit towards the same goal.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Annexation Reform is Now Law
As of 12:01 AM on July 1, 2011, the Annexation Reform Act of 2011 (HB 845) has become law. Now property owners have a way to effectively push back against unwanted annexation in our state! Gratitude cannot be sufficiently expressed for the many, many people who have worked hard and stayed the course so we could reach this day.
Interestingly, Governor Perdue neither signed nor vetoed the bill. She just let it pass the deadline and become law. You probably have your personal opinion of what this means to her politically, but we remain thankful for this first step in annexation law reform. It is likely the law will need further work and refinement in the months ahead, and we need to watch to see how the NC League of Municipalities will interpret the new law to their members, as well as watch how municipalities will act.
Thank you SO MUCH for the calls, letters, editorials, emails and personal visits you have made to contribute to this effort! Thank you for the prayers as well as the protests! The pressure from the true grassroots over months and years made a mark not only on our legislators and their political campaigns, but also on our friends, families, and colleagues in the communities around us -- and some had ears to hear and hearts that responded to the cry for justice!
A word of thanks is not undue our legislators. The folks in Wilmington have put together a list of who voted for and against HB 845:
https://sites.google.com/site/no2wilma2/email-campaign
https://sites.google.com/site/no2wilma2/sen-thankyou
Stay tuned to StopWoodfin.org for further developments in the weeks ahead!
MAY 3 UPDATE
Please ask others to get involved too. The practice of forced annexation has been a grievous hurt to all citizens of North Carolina, no matter where they live.
Tell your friends. Post it on Facebook. Twitter.
Phone numbers: http://stopncannexation.com/Contact_House.htm
Many, many thanks!
N
ew Article!Forced Annexation Could Become History in North Carolina
May 02, 2011
RALEIGH — For more than 50 years, rural and suburban residents of North Carolina have been pushed into cities against their will as a result of the state’s involuntary annexation law. The law — which allows cities to annex property and tax residents living outside their borders without the consent of those being annexed — may soon be history, if the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly has its way....
Read the rest of the article:
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=7707
January 2011
As the General Assembly begins their work this session, please join us as we encourage those representatives and senators who are working to stop the practice of forced annexation in North Carolina. Make no mistake! We want nothing less than an end to the abuse of power that local municipal politicians and bureaucrats have wielded against those of us in unincorporated areas of our state. Moratoriums are great, but the sooner we get rid of the 1959 law that allows the municipalities to have unbridled power, the better! This must be our ultimate focus.
Keep in mind, also, that the NC League of Municipalities is working day and night to thwart us. The NCLM, you will remember, has been the largest and most powerful lobbying organization in Raleigh. Guess how they are funded? By the municipal taxpayer. In order to be a member of the NCLM, every town and city in North Carolina sends their citizens' hard-earned tax dollars to this group, whose sole purpose, after funding themselves handsomely, is to bribe, finesse and intimidate local and state elected officials into keeping power out of the hands of the people and in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, lobbyists, and unscrupulous politicians.
Please feel free to send messages of encouragement and thanks to those legislators who are working for us. And for those who have not yet seen the light, please keep shining it in their direction. They could be reminded of the following:
NCGS 160-A-45: “…municipalities are created to provide the governmental services essential for sound urban development and for the protection of health, safety, and welfare in areas being intensively used for residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental purposes…” (emphasis added)
The following table summarizes the problems North Carolinians experience with the manner our current law has been applied across the state. In many cases, forced annexation of an area is accomplished merely as a means to enhance municipal revenue. This is carried out in spite of the fact that areas being annexed already have all the services required by law.
Currently, North Carolina involuntary annexation law requires municipalities to install water and sewer services for newly annexed neighborhoods within two years of the annexation. Besides the fact that there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure this is done, property owners often face tens of thousands of dollars in connection fees for water and sewer they seldom want or need.
Most grievous of all, North Carolina allows municipalities to force the annexation of property with no vote or approval process of any kind by the property owners or by anyone representing them.
| What’s wrong with the current law? | What do we need in law reform? |
| No voice for the people. | 1. A real voice -- we have been ignored and our rights trampled upon for far too long. |
|
Allows for
unwanted
annexation and
taxation without
provision of
meaningful,
necessary
services. In spite of the 1959 law, many municipalities have no obligation at all to provide water or sewer services to the annexed area, even when that is desirable. |
2.
Provision of
meaningful,
necessary
services; not
merely
substitution of
services already
in place.
* It is not meaningful or necessary to substitute city police for county sheriff services. * It is not meaningful or necessary to provide “free” garbage pickup when private services are already easily available. |
| Some municipalities require the forcibly annexed citizens to pay for expensive infrastructure. | 3. If the city wants to annex an area, the city must pay for all infrastructure. |
TO CONTACT your NC representative and senator, click HERE.
ROYAL PINES WINS A REPRIEVE
On October 12, friends and neighbors in Royal Pines won their first fight against forced annexation by the city of Asheville. The south Buncombe neighborhood, along with supporters from outside the area, had come together and worked hard for several weeks to convince Asheville city council to drop the proceedings against their working class community.
While this represents victory at this time for Royal Pines, the truth is that Asheville city council merely postponed the annexation proceedings for a year. Council stated they wanted to see if the economy improves, which is a crystal clear indication that most council members remain convinced that the use of force in annexation is a good way for the city to grow. The bottom line for these members is that forced annexation is a method to increase municipal revenue via taxation without having to provide any essential services to the property owners.
7/7/2010: Where were you a year ago?
On July 7, 2009 many of us were at the Woodfin Community Center, expressing our displeasure at the thought of being forcibly annexed by that town. We were being told by the mayor and aldermen that they had the law on their side, that being forced into Woodfin was a good thing, and that we would like it. And that, oh really, the increased taxes (without any meaningful services provided) weren't so awfully bad.... Most importantly, we learned that we had no bureaucratic or legislative recourse whatsoever, and we had no representation from anywhere.
NEW article on forced annexation by
Daren Bakst:
A Quick and Easy Fix of the
Annexation Law
A little history about forced
annexation
- Before 1947, the NC General Assembly approved all municipal annexation.
- From 1947 to 1959, a change in law allowed municipalities to initiate the annexation of an area, but required the annexation proposal be put to a vote of the people in the area being annexed.
- In 1959, the legislature removed the requirement for a vote and justified it with the extension of water and sewer services to some areas in need of them.
- In spite of opposition from many legislators at the time, the 1959 law delegated all authority directly to the municipalities, without oversight of any kind. Since then, there have been no “checks and balances” in the way that private property is involuntarily annexed to a town or city, thereby giving rise to the term forced annexation.
Currently all power resides with the municipality. No due process is available to citizens who are targeted for unwanted annexation – no vote, no voice at all, no political rights whatsoever. In legal challenges regarding this, the courts have said that “it’s not really the city that is doing the annexing, it is the General Assembly that is annexing via the delegation of power.” Yet time and time again, legislators in Raleigh have refused to become involved in forced annexation battles, saying it is a local, not state, matter. Thus the municipalities and the legislature pass the buck back and forth, and the citizen is left with no representation, and no one to fight for him. There is nothing remotely democratic or just about the practice.
What’s wrong with the current law? |
What do we need in law reform? |
|
No representation or voice for the people. |
1. A real voice -- either a majority vote by the targeted citizens, or by unbiased third party supervision, e.g., a neutral county commission. |
|
Allows for taxation without provision of meaningful, necessary services.
In spite of the 1959 law, many municipalities have no obligation at all to provide water or sewer services to the annexed area, even when that is desirable. |
2. Provision of meaningful, necessary services; not merely substitution of services already in place. * It is not meaningful or necessary to substitute city police for county sheriff services. * It is not meaningful or necessary to provide “free” garbage pickup when inexpensive private services are already easily available. |
|
Some municipalities require the forcibly annexed citizens to pay for expensive infrastructure. |
3. If the city wants to annex an area, the city must pay for infrastructure. |
Unintended Consequences
Fear of unwanted, forced annexation sometimes leads people to form coalitions to try for approval of the incorporation of a new town from the General Assembly. But this can backfire. A case in point: Woodfin, NC was incorporated in 1971, in a defensive move to prevent the area from being forcibly annexed by Asheville. The town’s original founders were very well-intentioned and simply wanted to protect the citizens. However, those people are no longer in office and now, years later, the Town of Woodfin’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen have grand ideas for a “new” town and are practicing forced annexation to fund it. They are “doing unto others what they originally didn’t want done unto themselves.”
Last week we heard from several people who moved to Asheville because of its exciting, vibrant, broadminded segments of the community. I am amazed that a progressive city like Asheville continues to approve of using a repressive tool like forced annexation to try to improve itself. There are far better ways to build a strong community. FORCE is contrary to developing vitality for the City.
Even if the map we’re seeing tonight looks smaller, the use of aggression does not make for good relations with anyone, both inside and outside the city limits.
Is that really what you’re after? I’m sure you mean well, but an undercurrent of ill will is a secondary result, and that kind of sentiment does not go away over time.
Do the citizens of Asheville know how much of their tax dollars is spent on this kind of encroachment on their neighbors in unincorporated areas? My conservative guess is that on the recent activities and trial alone there must have been about a quarter of a million dollars spent. And we wonder why there is a $5 million deficit!
This is folly.
There is a Higher Law than political law – Juris Naturalis, or Natural Law. One of the cardinal rules of natural law is that no one may encroach upon any person or property. This is the basis of freedom versus bondage.
Please don’t be fooled by the League of Municipalities’ arguments that forced annexation is a good way to increase territory. It’s not. It’s barbaric. I’m ashamed that NC is one of the last states in the U.S. to allow this kind of authoritarian measure upon its citizens. Just because that barbaric 1959 law permits it, doesn’t mean that you actually should utilize it.
Asheville is better than that. Please take this cruel implement out of the City’s tool belt.
Merry Christmas from StopWoodfin.org!
StopWoodfin.org Victory!
Many, many thanks to each and every one of you who personally gave of your time, money, sweat, energy and tears to bring this to pass!
We would be remiss, however, not to inject a word of caution into the midst of celebration. The mayor and aldermen of Woodfin still have until October 5th to annex. We think the chances that this would happen are pretty slim, but we cannot ever trust these government officials in Woodfin, and ask you to help us all by keeping your eyes and ears open. We need to be cautious and keep our legal funds in the trust account until the October 5 expiration date of the original Resolution of Intent to Annex has passed. At that time we would like to have a big meeting -- to congratulate each other, celebrate together, and decide what we, as a group, want to do next.
And, unfortunately, the possibility still exists that these people will start up a new resolution of intent to annex at any time in the future. Woodfin and Asheville are now discussing some kind of annexation agreement, so we must continue to remain vigilant.
One thing to discuss with you. The gratitude we have for those who stepped forward and put their hard-earned money on the line is beyond what can be adequately expressed in a simple message like this. That we were able to fund the legal effort and hire attorney Matthew Roberson made a HUGE impact on the outcome we now enjoy. Yes, we put a lot of vocal, political pressure on the Woodfin government, but without the "bite" of having hired a lawyer, they could have just simply ignored us and steamrolled over the top of us because the fact remains that we have no legal rights, no vote, no say of any kind, in the state of North Carolina regarding forced annexation. We hired Mr. Roberson because the way to effectively fight this kind of battle is on technicalities, and Woodfin's errors became apparent through legal discovery.
If this victory is important to those of you who have not made a contribution to our legal fund, please seriously consider doing so now, to share the cost of this expense with your neighbors and friends who have already come forward. Your contribution at this time will make a big difference. Please go the Contribute Now page on this website to donate online via PayPal, or send a check to:
StopWoodfin.org, P.O. Box 1465, Leicester, NC, 28748-1465.
Again, many thanks to all who contributed in the many ways that we worked to bring the Woodfin officials to the point of backing off. We have been an awesome force! All of us on the steering committee are so proud of what we ALL have accomplished together.
With gratitude,
StopWoodfin.org Steering Committee
Dave Blevins, Steve Branstetter, Phil Flack, Stephen Freeby, Myra Fuller, Betty Jackson, Elaine Laufer, Martha Lowe, Carolyn Williams
